Table Of ContentThematizations
of the Goddess in
South Asian Cinema
Thematizations
of the Goddess in
South Asian Cinema
Edited by
Anway Mukhopadhyay
and Shouvik Narayan Hore
Thematizations of the Goddess in South Asian Cinema
Edited by Anway Mukhopadhyay and Shouvik Narayan Hore
This book first published 2023
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Copyright © 2023 by Anway Mukhopadhyay, Shouvik Narayan Hore
and contributors
All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior permission of the copyright owner.
ISBN (10): 1-5275-9122-0
ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-9122-6
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction ................................................................................................ 1
Anway Mukhopadhyay and Shouvik Narayan Hore
Chapter One ................................................................................................ 7
A Trajectory of the Hero and Goddess in South Asian Cinema:
The Myth of Kumari from Stage to Screen
Dhruba Karki
Chapter Two ............................................................................................. 28
Locating the Disruptive ‘Real’ of Femininity:
A Reading of Debi: Misir Ali Prothombar
Prabal Bhowmik
Chapter Three ........................................................................................... 37
History, Religion, and Historicity:
A Study of the Documentary on Sharda Pith by Public 24x7
Srijani Chowdhury
Chapter Four ............................................................................................. 45
Questioning the Propagandist Elements
within Religion Through the Lens of Humour:
A Critical Reading of Mookuthi Amman
Ritushree Sengupta
Chapter Five ............................................................................................. 52
S***: The Word that Turned the Sacred, Profane
Balagopal Menon
Chapter Six ............................................................................................... 65
Woman Becoming Goddess in Devipaksha:
Violence, Justice, and the (Divine) Feminine
Neha Chatterjee
vi Table of Contents
Chapter Seven ........................................................................................... 74
Goddesses of a Different Ilk: Partition and Its ‘Other’ Women
in Meghe Dhaka Tara and Earth 1947
Raja Basu
Chapter Eight ............................................................................................ 84
Retelling the ‘Signs’ of Holy Militia: Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani
Takbeer Salati
Chapter Nine ............................................................................................. 97
Goddess, Bride, Daughter: Nanda Devi in the Raj Jat Documentary
Ankita Sundriyal
Chapter Ten ............................................................................................ 108
Shakti Rupena Sangsthita: Interfacing Goddess Worship, Sacred
Geography and the Flesh Trade in the Hindi Movie Chingaari
Praggnaparamita Biswas
Chapter Eleven ....................................................................................... 123
Back to (Im)Purity: An Alternative Umbilical Discourse in Tumbbad
Dipannita Chatterjee and Gourab Singha
Chapter Twelve ...................................................................................... 132
Bandhu Singh ki Faansi: Maa Tarkulha Devi:
The Goddess of a “Forgotten” Hero
Utkarsh Chaubey
Chapter Thirteen ..................................................................................... 143
Re-creating the Goddess Sita in Subarnarekha and Pinjar:
Depicting the Partition and Women’s Subjectivity in Indian Cinema
Adity Roy
Chapter Fourteen .................................................................................... 166
From Devi to Bulbbul:
Cinematic Representations of the Embodied Goddess
Jaya Sarkar
Chapter Fifteen ....................................................................................... 176
Kali and Indian Horror-Thriller Films:
The Malevolent Muse
Dipanwita Paul
Thematizations of the Goddess in South Asian Cinema vii
Chapter Sixteen ...................................................................................... 192
The Medium and Its Limits:
The Goddess in Marutirtha Hinglaj and Devi
Sreejit Datta and Ahana Chaudhuri
Chapter Seventeen .................................................................................. 203
“Radha saji, Sita saji, saji Parvati. Tobu keno jay na go moder durgati”:
Aparna’s Quest and the Resultant Discovery of the
‘Heart of Darkness’ in Kaler Rakhal (2009)
Nabanita Paul and Abhishek Chowdhury
Chapter Eighteen .................................................................................... 214
The Making of the Goddess: A Critical Appraisal of the
Depiction of the Goddess Bhadrakali in Malayalam Cinema
Monisha Mohan and Gigy J. Alex
Chapter Nineteen .................................................................................... 233
Devat(cid:407) and Her Creator in Vaishnavee: The Devotional and
Theistic-Artistic Interrelationship Between Osanda and Vaishnavee
Sreenu Gopan
Chapter Twenty ...................................................................................... 245
In Pursuit of Bhakti: A Study of Three Goddess Films
Shouvik Narayan Hore
List of Contributors ................................................................................ 255
INTRODUCTION
ANWAY MUKHOPADHYAY
AND SHOUVIK NARAYAN HORE
The figure of the Goddess has often assumed a central position in the
thematic spectrum of various genres of South Asian cinema. From genre to
genre, and from one geo-cultural zone to another, her cinematic
representations manifest different socio-political concerns, aesthetic styles
and thematic treatments. While the mythological genre represents her
mythic exploits, including narratives grounded in both Sanskritic and
local/sthalapuranic traditions, “art films” often seek to thematize the
Goddess in terms of the complex relations between gender and religion in
South Asia. Thematically speaking, her functions, whether tropological or
narrative, often overlap across film genres in the region. Hence, there is
convergence as well as divergence between the thematizations of the
Goddess in art films and those in popular mythological or devotional films.
We need to remember that even the audience of the art films on the Goddess
theme may often be grounded in devotional traditions, and may well be her
devotees. Hence, even in terms of the reception of such films by the
audience, we often see critical points of convergence as well as divergence,
as far as the different film genres are concerned.
The Goddess, whether pan-South-Asian or local, Sanskritic or syncretic,
remains a powerful presence in South Asian culture. However, while
scholars keep dealing with South Asian goddess traditions from the
perspective of religious studies, seldom do we pay sufficient attention to the
presence – whether solid or spectral – of these living goddess traditions in
the domain of cultural production in South Asia. Mandakranta Bose has
reminded us of the necessity to “widen the view of goddesses in Hinduism
beyond theology and ritual practice to situate them in the human world of
their times” (14). This volume, we hope, will facilitate such a project. The
Goddess in South Asia remains a conundrum for many – she has co-optable
as well as subversive potential, as far as her location within the South Asian
patriarchies is concerned. She may sometimes facilitate and sometimes
baffle feminist projects. However, the complex imaginaries of the
